hey all! just a quick check in and a huge hug for all of those going through some stuff right now.
more tonight!

YES, it is so true that we are or have been under a tremendous amount of STRESS -- you can hear it all through this thread. Sometimes, big & little changes need to be made in our lives; and new strategies to deal with the stress we face each day are also helpful. Of course, the support here is so very important too; more than you know! Thanks, ladies!


MATILDA ~ wow, busy life; you're doing great!

FUNKY ~ sometimes, temporary measures are helpful!

SMALLSTEPS ~ you are in a difficult & stressful situation at present; keep coming here for support -- you will come through this stronger, I'm sure ... :hug:

Caroline ~ those happy pics are a great idea too!

SUE ~ sounds like you are on a roll right now; yeah!

MUGGLES ~ sorry to hear you're sick again; could a multi-vitamin and/or Vitamin C (250 mg) help any?

SALSA ~ glad you like your new job; and have fun with the belly dancing ... :)

My day started out well -- but it was just too perfect, so some stress just had to come my way (somebody's grumpy today; not me). Now, while I did get a bit upset for a few minutes; I walked away and I did not eat anything. That's a victory ... :carrot:

Plus I have to get some receipts copied for our version of th IRS/RC -- they want proof of some my figures; gee, I could have sent them right at the start if you'd only told me you wanted them ... arrgh!!! I found them all, no problem; Oh GOD, thank you for the gift of organization -- I didn't even get upset ... yeah! No stress eating today!!! I'm getting better at this. I'm sure it's all a test -- gotta test out these strategies once or twice every day at least ... ;)

Keep chugging ladies -- hope you all have a POP day today! :flow2:

Funky, I don't think my surgeon was thrilled with the idea of me waiting, but I know the risks, and it's really for the best. Plus I need to pay off my other medical bills before I have to start worrying about more!

I haven't been sleeping well the past few nights (I'm guessing from the new meds I'm on) and I am exhausted today. I'm going to drag myself over to my sister's house to lift weights anyway, but I have a feeling it's not going to be a great workout. I'll do what I can.

Rosebud, glad you were able to work through the stressful moments today. Finding coping strategies that don't involve food is the challenge for all of us, of course.

good morning! :hug: for all the stressed in the thread.

#2 son is sick and staying home today. arrrgh.... I sure hope I don't get it.

I am on track after a mostly off-track Labor Day weekend. Not a disaster kind of off-track...just not eating/exercising well. Hurray for that - and TOM finally showed up, so perhaps I'll see a loss in the next week. If I have one serious weakness that I don't know how to fix, it is that when TOM is about a week out I want to eat everything in sight. Protein and sugar most of all.

Had a good swim last night and looking for a good run and/or ride today, depending on what the weather does. It has been very stormy and windy this week.

CAROLINE ~ I did fight it through and still stayed 125 calories under for the day -- yeah! And, Mr. Grumpy apologized; plus, said that he is gonna try to work on that! :cheer2:

CALLUNA ~ even though I am in my menopause stage, I can still feel when my hormones are running amuck. I have hot flashes and also feel hungry all the time. So now, I plan ahead for that and eat my max daily cals on those days (1800); so far that is working well. My maintenance cals are 2000; and occasionally, I allow myself a flex day if I need to. Honestly, at my weight, I'm sure my maintenance/flex cals are low enuff that I can still lose on that too.


RE: HUNGER PANGS ~ I read a post by one of the guys in the men's corner that I thought I would share with you all. At one time (many years ago now), I had lost the hunger sensation for a while, but after I started watching my eating (meaning eating less), it came back. Now it is very clear; and I'm glad it is ... :)

This fella said that we should be glad that we feel the hunger pangs now becuz it shows us that we are not over-eating, so we shouldn't be afraid of feeling hungry sometimes, esp since we want this to be a long-term lifestyle change. He says many normal-weight people feel hunger all the time (and from what I have heard, they eat only when they feel hungry too).

I think he has a great point there. I like to tell myself that "A little hunger won't kill me!" -- esp when I want to push through to the next meal (when I've had my allotment for that snack time). While feeling a little bit hungry may feel a bit uncomfortable for a few minutes, it won't harm us.

Secondly, the fact that we can feel hunger again, helps us to not over-eat. Why? When you are numb, you don't know when to stop. You don't feel satiated or that almost full sensation, like you should. Thirdly, I find it helps me appreciate and enjoy what food I am eating all that much more. It tastes better too.

... and, on those rarer occasions when I feel a more "ravenous" hunger, that usually means that I am way under my calories for that day; almost without exception, so I eat something to remedy that. This strategy helps me a lot to stay on plan.

Just thought I'd share that with you all; have a wonderful day ... :D

We had a big lightening storm that knocked our power out last night. It came back on about time for Hubby to go to work, since Hubby didn't get much sleep so his boss let him stay home and sleep for a few more hours. At least all is back to normal and we didn't lose all the food in the new fridge due to the generator. I still feel exhausted.

Rosebud. I know you have lost over a hundred lbs. How much more do you want to lose? I do not know how you can lose with your calorie intake. I am at 1200. Are you exercising like crazy? I get hunger pains then my sugar drops and I binge. Small snacks helps but then I never have that full feeling like you say and I do not know where that leaves me.

I am working on getting my eating back on track and then start exercise. Maybe I am putting it off again but I feel so out of control that I feel like I have to really focus for a while. Besides exercise has never worked for me in the weight loss department. It seems like calorie control is what works (when I am OP). Exercise has always been a disappointment and depression causing because of the slow return for the workout. So I am really shy about exercise. Does anyone else feel this way? Or is this just my mental block? People swear by it but I have real trust issues. Am I sick in the head, am I mental?

Well hope you have a great OP day. Funky

Funky, exercise helps me feel better, and when I was doing it regularly, helped me tone up a lot too. I'm still lifting weights regularly, which I credit for a) not gaining back *all* my weight, and b) not being as big as I was the last time I weighed what I do right now.

But as for weight loss, it's pretty much all about diet for me. Right now I can't really work out hard the way I used to, because of my bleeding problem, but as long as I stick to my diet plan I can still drop pounds pretty regularly. (It's the sticking to it that's the challenge!)

As a result, I never really look at exercise as a weight loss tool. Mostly I use it as a way to tone up and feel better while I'm also working on weight loss, if that makes sense.

Having said all that, I have slid off the wagon a bit with my eating in the past couple days. I'm working on trying to get back on track now.

I somehow managed to loss a whole pound this week!! I am not sure how with TOM pending right around the corner, but I will take it!!

:grouphug: to everyone going through a hard time right now!

In answer to your first question -- No! I exercise in small spurts throughout the day. Understand that I walk with 2 canes, so I'm not an athlete here. :lol: Like you, I have to watch my blood sugar levels; if I don't eat enuff or enuff grain carbs, my BSL's plummet too. To fix that, I have 3 meals plus 2-3 snacks a day, but I make them a carb + protein or a protein by itself and often, with a low-cal beverage of some kind.

I teaked & tweaked until I found snacks that satisfied me, and balanced my sugars too. I start with a protein ie. a slice of cheese/60 or 8 UNsalted nuts/50 cals + an apple (small one/50; med/75; large/100). My doctor was the one who suggested I start with an apple; I added the protein. If I am really low on my calories, I will have a slice of whole grain bread/tst with peanut butter or cheese (that may happen once a week). Other times, it might be baby carrots with pb; a boiled egg; or turkey pepperettes; baked or stewed fruit; and popcorn on the weekend, etc.

I have no doubt that I started at a much higher weight than you; if you look to the left, you'll see that I was a size 30 -- in weight terms, I was in the 300's (my start weight was 381 lbs; and was probably higher becuz at first, no weight registered :rolleyes:, meaning I was over the top limit of that scale). Each time after that, when the nurse weighed me, I had lost 25 lbs, then 25 lbs, 20 lbs, and so on ... boy, I was elated.

Sooo, I still have a ways to go yet; and, I am cycling my calories between 1500-1800 a day which is working well for me, and may be considered low for my present weight according to some calculators. However, I am doing what I know works for me. I try not to go below 1500 but some days I have to add stuff to get it over, but on other days, I have no problem depending on what I'm eating. I tried eating less, but then I stopped losing weight, and I was way too hungry; so I went back up to 1500-1800 cals a day and I have been losing ever since.

Everything is relative, isn't it? I'm a bit concerned that you are only eating 1200 cals a day; but then, it depends on what you weigh and how active you are. Eating too low doesn't leave you much lee-way. I think that some people here struggle & binge becuz they are eating too low; and they just don't realize it. Of course, I know that everyone must find out what works for them and stick with that, but they may have to experiment a little first. :D

Like I said earlier, I don't work out like crazy; it is minimal at best. :lol: I start the day off with toning exercises in bed as soon as I awake. Then I get up and start my day with my morning housechores (that's my AM exercise); then I go outside and do some yard work; in the AM or afternoon, I go out and take a short walk. I walk a lot indoors too. Plus 3 days a week I do hand-weights; they are easy and fun. In the evening, I do chair aerobics or dancing; and a few more toning exercises (esp for my abs becuz that is a problem area for me). We have a very long house, so I walk back and forth dozens of times a day.

When I'm on my PC, I get up every so many minutes (in between reading and posts) and go for another short walk around here. Sometimes, in the evening, I may go for another short walk outdoors (I did last night). I used to do more -- walk on a track, plus through department/grocery stores 3 times a week, but now that may only be once a week or less as we don't have a car now, so I do more at home.

Funny thing is -- that I am doing less exercise overall, but am losing more weight/fat than before. I think that was becuz I was eating too low and my body was holding it a bit (oh, and a lot of water-weight too). Also, I think that maybe the several short spurts is working out better for my body than one long session, if you catch my drift. It seems that way; and collectively, this is how I broke through my stalls & plateaus ... :)

Caroline ~ I agree with your post there; I mostly do stuff for flexibility, stamina, and toning, and I do feel much better for it.

Hi everybody, ubergirl here. I know some of you, and there are some faces new to me. My story, in a nutshell, is this: I lost 105 pounds and went from being a couch potato to a runner. I kept most of it off for almost two years, struggling but maintaining for a good long while, until the end of 2011, and then suddenly, I just LOST it. About 9 or ten months ago, I started a serious binge lifestyle.

There is some good news: I am still 30 lbs less than I was when I started, which is a 10% loss and I've maintained that for 3 years. I am MUCH fitter than I was when I started this journey. I couldn't maintain a jog for more than 30 seconds, couldn't climb stairs or walk up steep hills, and that is no longer true.

In part, I know why I gained it back. When I lost the weight I was generally happy, and most importantly, had plenty of time to prioritize myself. But when I started taking on more and more responsibilities in my life, I didn't have the coping skills and went back to my old way-- stress/binge eating.

Thankfully, I'm now in a much better place.

So, I'm ready to work it again.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out the best approach to use this time. During the time I was losing the weight, I didn't find it that difficult. But since then, I've had trouble going back on my plan and maintaining it for more than about 10 days. I believe in my heart that I'm going to have to find a more flexible way-- one that incorporates the occasional treat or normal food in a healthy serving size. It's easier for me to cut out entire categories of food (primarily white foods, baked goods, and sugar) and to subsist mostly on lean proteins, veggies, and some fruit. It works great, and I know it's healthy, but when I go off, I tend to really binge on all the stuff I was passing up. I'm not sure why, but now, whenever I try to jump back on the bandwagon, I immediately get back into the more extreme mode... thinking about cutting calories very low, wanting to skip meals... enjoying it when I get kind of lightheaded from hunger... yes, there were times on my first weight loss journey when I basically thought "less is more" especially toward the end, when I was trying to get below the spot where my body had stalled out.

I am hopeful that now that I'm in a pretty good place in my life I'll be able to refocus on weight loss, without becoming quite as compulsive as I was before.

Sorry for the long ramble, but I'm looking forward to participating in this thread. In the meantime, I'm looking into ways to manage my stress better, and to just accept the fact that I simply can't function if I take on too many things and I am going to have to accept that I have limits beyond which I can't be healthy.

Uber, nice to see you back. For me if I tell myself I can't have something I just want it more, and I can be good for a while, then I just go nuts. To totally deny myself takes a lot of willpower, prehaps more willpower than just having a 'treat' a day. Cutting back after binge is difficult, espcially if you have to go through the whole process again and again. :dizzy:

It's so much HARDER the second time around! I can't figure out why that is, so I'm trying not to dwell on it. Like yourself, I've had to really restrict and then if I backslide at ALL it's a one-way ticket to Bingetown, which is scary and also really counterproductive.

As long as we keep on trying we haven't failed, so it's great to see you back here. I haven't made much progress since the last time you stopped by, but I'm still plugging away. We'll get there again! The alternative, as far as I'm concerned, is unacceptable. I have an entire closet full of super cute jackets that don't fit me and I refuse to give them up, so I don't have a choice.

Anyway, welcome back. I'm glad things are settling down for you.

Confession time: I ate two donuts yesterday. Two! I let TOM derail me and now I have to detox all over again. So it's Day One of the Whole 30 again for me. I made it a week this last time. Maybe not starting right at the beginning of TOM will make it easier this time, but I can't keep blaming hormones for my lack of self-control.

Ubergirl. Your story touched me. Was the responsibility increase all work related? What did you do to cut back? How are you in a better place?

It is harder I think because we are doing the SAME thing over. You need a new thing like new exercise tape or a new food organization or a new reporting tool or a new treat. Something to make it different. I have a new calorie App that has made a big difference. Maybe you can do something like that.

Thistoo. Sorry about the 30 start over. What made the donuts irresistible? Were they really good? What kind were they?

I am work on getting my eating under control. I did good yesterday. I still went over calories but with fruit. I was starving before I went to bed and had a banana and milk to help me sleep. I thought good choice. Well I have another weekend and that is where I get into trouble. My sons birthday is on Sunday and there will be cake and I am planning on a piece but no ice cream. I figure that is a better choice by cutting out some of the calories. Now if I can just stick to the calories to save up for it.

Well have a great day. Good luck on the plan. Funky

Part of the problem is that donuts are like my kryptonite. They're the one sweet food I have the hardest time resisting, and my boss brings two dozen every month for our staff meeting. I have resisted many, many times in the past, but yesterday I was just really hungry. Like, actual physical pain hunger, not just 'rumbly tummy' hunger. Donuts were still a terrible choice, but I hadn't prepared with enough on-plan food so I gave in to temptation.

The second one was just because I'd started the carb/sugar rollercoaster with the first one, which meant I was STARVING for the rest of the day.

I know better. I'm back on track today and there will be no temptations around me for the weekend, so it's okay. I'm just annoyed with myself for giving in when I already had a week of Whole 30 under my belt. I was a quarter of the way to the finish line! Though clearly I'm going to have to go longer than 30 days if I want to get this weight back off, because nothing else seems to work.

PS: And yes, they really were that good. :sigh: